jaco pastorius' listening techniques for live situations...

[allwaysgroovin]

i have been listening to the bbc radio documentary on jaco pastorius recently. its absolutely brilliant ;

[url="http://www.zoklet.net/bbs/showthread.php?t=195882"]http://www.zoklet.net/bbs/showthread.php?t=195882[/url]

Now,

im not sure who says this because there's lots of different people weaving in and out of it all the way through, but this guy says that jaco was the guy who taught him how to listen when your playing.

I mean really listen, like having your ears float up in the air and take in what everyone is playing, and hear yourself in the mix.

when i heard that i was fascinated by it and ive been trying it out every time i play ever since.

still, ive not really had that "outerbody experience" with my ears floating around the studio yet, though i am getting better at it.

I wonder what you guys think of this, does anyone have some really good techniques for having these experiences? maybe there are a few of you that know the exact lesson that this guy was taught by the master?

[Bilbo]

Coutn Basie used to talk about 'total hearing', listening to the whole band rather than just yourself. Its a real skill and takes a LOT of practice and discipline. On the rare occasions where I achieve it, it really shows you how much you do on automatic pilot and how much better you can be if you focus.

[BassMan94]

thanks for posting this, been waiting for ages !!!

[hestan]

Excellent Post!

While we can rush around worrying about scales, soloing, harmony and techniques, this is all 99% redundant in terms of bass playing if we're not truly listening. That is, in terms of the true goal (you'd hope) of trying to serve the music & make the music sound better with the bass.

Try learning a piece of music so you can play the original bass part (fills and everything) perfectly from memory. Then write on paper all the different instruments you can hear in there.

Then, If there are 10 different instruments, now play along 10 x but listen completely to each of those instruments one at a time (at the end of each time you should be able to say for example " - the Hi Hat becomes more open at the end of each chorus after you did this with the Hi-hat part....." or "the piano goes to arpeggios in the bridge"

Some of the clearest and most lucid advice I've ever seen on good 'bass playing' (as bass in it's traditional role as an instrument which supportsthe music and makes everything else sound as good as it can be) was Lionel Richie on recording with different bassists.

"At the end of the recording take, the B league player always asks one very important question. How did that sound? .... - If you have to ask.... you missed it"

And conversely one of the most confused things another bassist ever said to me was.... Jazz star (so and so's) gig was okay, but the bassist (a famous guy) didn't really play anything a bass player would be interested in.

He went to the gig to listen to the bassist, not the music.

[allwaysgroovin]

thats brilliant hestan.

so after your familiar with the 10 instruments,is there a technique that helps you listen to them all at the same time?

also,

[quote name='hestan' timestamp='1338470879' post='1675069']
Some of the clearest and most lucid advice I've ever seen on good 'bass playing' (as bass in it's traditional role as an instrument which supportsthe music and makes everything else sound as good as it can be) was Lionel Richie on recording with different bassists.
[/quote]

where can i read/hear this advice? are there particular recordings or articles that you can point me in the direction of?

[Joebass]

[quote name='allwaysgroovin' timestamp='1338852855' post='1680179']
where can i read/hear this advice? are there particular recordings or articles that you can point me in the direction of?
[/quote]


Nathan East - the bussiness of bass

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfxYjQ9ZuSU[/media]